Tom's Angel (7 page)

Trina
's eyes rounded. “Why?”

An interesting response.
“Because my father owns a dance hall there. I assure you, I’m not one of the girls.”

“
I never suspected you were. You aren't that type of woman.”

“
No, but I see them every day, and nurse them when they're hurt.”

“
You mean when a cowboy hurts one of them?”

Such knowledge surprised Rosalie.
“Yes. How could you know what happens in the Acre?”

“
Gabriel and I talk about everything under the sun. He learned a long time ago how eager I am to know everything about anything. And, when he comes from town, he brings me books. See that shelf over there? I've read every last one.”

Rosalie examined the shelf next to
Trina's chiffonier. There were at least three dozen volumes.
Return Of The Native, A Doll’s House, Ben Hur, Portrait Of A Lady
. “You've read them all?”

“
At least twice. When I've read the new ones, I reread old ones. I never get tired of them. The newest are by my chair, in the front room. Some I like more than others. Like
Treasure Island
. I've read it at least four times this past year. I love adventure stories.”

Rosalie could see where
Trina's open-mindedness came from. For years, Rosalie's only escape from the Acre had come through the books she read.

“
I've read all of these,” she said quietly.

“
You have! We'll have to discuss them.” Interrupted by a yawn, she waved one hand. “After I've had a nap.”

“
Why don't I take Hannah for a while so you can sleep.”

Trina
peered at the tiny face. “I'd hate to move her now. She's sleeping so soundly.”

“
When she wakes up, then. If you need me, I'll be close by.”

Trina
extended her hand, and Rosalie took it.

“
Thank you, dear friend. I have to confess, I was hoping Tom had brought his girl to meet us.”

Rosalie felt her cheeks warming.
“I'll be working in Denver for a well-to-do family. If Tom doesn't mind my working, I certainly would not mind his coming to visit from time to time.”

Trina
's eyes flashed. “I'll make sure he knows that. In a roundabout way, of course.”

“
Of course. You rest now.”

Back in the front room, Rosalie reported mother and daughter
doing well and resting. Gabriel seemed to have regained some of his former energy and enthusiasm for company.

“
Tom, I'd consider it a favor if you and Miss Kincannon—”

“
Rosalie. After all, I delivered your daughter.” She grinned at him.

“
All right. If you and Rosalie could stay a couple more days. Trina is going to need help with the baby and the cooking. I can cook, but Trina says it isn't fit to eat. I'd be much obliged if you'd stay.”

Tom glanced at Rosalie, who nodded.
He could see the request pleased her. He'd also noticed the way she and his sister had taken to one another. “Of course we'll stay. I wanted to offer, but I didn't know if maybe the three of you might like to be alone.”

“
There'll be plenty of time for that. I want Trina to rest until she's feeling up to snuff again. With Rosalie to help in the kitchen, Trina will have time to spend with Hannah.” His eyes moistened again when he said the name. “Has Tom told you about the name Trina chose for our daughter?”

“
Yes. I think your wife is an extraordinary woman.” Rosalie swiped at her own moist eyes. Incredibly lucky, that's what Gabriel and Trina were. Lucky to find each other, overcome all the obstacles, and make a life for themselves and their daughter. Every woman dreamed of marrying the man she loved and having his babies. Perhaps, someday, that dream would come true for Rosalie, too.

She smiled at Tom, and found him smiling back at her.

Chapter 5

Trina, determined to be up and around within two days, defied Rosalie and insisted on walking short distances around the bedroom, then around the house, building her strength. Hannah, healthy and happy, awoke every two to four hours around the clock, demanding to be fed.

Tom helped Gabriel with chores every morning and evening, and persuaded him it was too damn hot to work in the middle of the day.
A hundred and two in the shade! It was enough to cook a man's brain through his hat. Gabriel didn’t take a lot of convincing. He spent most of his day with Trina, cooing at little Hannah, and sometimes rocking her in the front room while Trina slept. The baby learned her papa's voice quickly and tried to focus on his face when he held her, waving her tiny arms.

Rosalie and
Trina spent hours talking about the books they'd both read, the significance of symbolism, exquisite description, and characters so real, they swore they'd met them in town last week.

The days at the
Hart Ranch had to be the happiest time of Rosalie's life. But, by the third day, Tom seemed antsy to get back to Fort Worth, then on to Lubbock and Denver. She'd heard him talking to Gabriel in the evenings about all the cattle they'd lost.

“
I hate like hell to see Paw borrow money for that bull,” Tom said one evening. “We already owe for a passel of cows we bought last spring. Paw expected the investment to pay off treble in new calves this next year. Then the fever hit and took every last one of them, and the bulls, too.”

“
I wish I had a bull to send back with you now, Tom. I've already told you the first bull calf to be born is yours if you want it.”

“
Thanks, but a calf won't be of much use the first year. We have to have a bull come spring who'll do his duty by every cow we have.” He remembered Rosalie, sitting in Trina's rocker, reading TREASURE ISLAND. “Pardon me, Rosalie.”

She nodded, excusing him when there was actually nothing to excuse him for.
She'd seen bulls “doing their duty.” She'd also seen what men did to women after their “duty” had been done. She kept reading, savoring every word of rich text.

Gabriel got up to fetch a cup of coffee from the stove.
“Amos has done business with this banker for a long time, though, didn't you say?”

“
Better than twenty years. But Richard Strickland is a hard man in a lot of ways.”

Rosalie perked up at the name Strickland.
Could this be Zane's father? She wasn't about to ask. She pretended to keep reading, hanging on every word spoken.

“
Hard?”

“
After twenty years, you'd think he and Paw would be friends. But Strickland counts no man friend who borrows money from his bank. We've often joked he has a lump of coal for a heart.”

“
Like Scrooge.” Rosalie wished she hadn't said that! Now, they'd know she’d been listening.

“
Exactly. Only Strickland isn't going to have any spirits visiting him, other than expensive brandy.”

“
So you think he might not approve the loan for the bull?”

“
There's no reason for him to deny it. He knows the McCabe family is good for the debt the first minute it can be paid back. He's earned a pitiable amount of interest off us through the years, I can tell you.”

“
Then why are you worried?”

“
Strickland has been threatening to retire for the past five years. Wants to leave the bank to one of his sons, but he has to choose which one.”

“
The eldest, I assume?”

“
That's the problem. Strickland's eldest son is a good-for-nothing womanizer. If he isn't drunk, he's sleeping it off. He never comes to the bank unless his old man orders him there. Then, he's off again, first chance he gets.”

“
Doesn't sound like much of a banker.”

“
Zane isn't much of a man.”

Rosalie gasped and dropped the book.
It slid off the side of her lap and onto the floor. Thank goodness it landed without the pages being bent or creased.

“
Is something wrong?” Tom retrieved the book and handed it back to her.

“
No, nothing. I just.remembered something I must do in the kitchen. Please excuse me.”

She laid the book carefully on the table beside the chair, then hurried out of the room, not wanting to draw more attention to her familiarity with Zane Strickland's name.
She grabbed a dish cloth and began wiping every surface in the kitchen, even though she'd done it an hour ago, after supper.

Tom wouldn't take kindly to knowing he’d be escorting her to Denver because Strickland had refused to do so
, or if he knew why she’d be working for the Strickland family, or that she’d be defending herself against Zane Strickland every minute she was compelled to work there. Tom might back out on taking her at all if he knew. If only there could be a way to leave the Acre without having to be servant to Zane Strickler and his father as payment for that card game.

Tom came for a cup of coffee.
“At that rate, you're going to shine things until they disappear.”

“
What? Oh. I just don't want Trina to come back to a dirty kitchen.”

“
No chance of that with you around.” He winked at her and went back to the front room with a full cup of the rich brew.

Rosalie collapsed into a chair at the table, wringing the dish cloth in her hands.
In the morning, they'd head back to Fort Worth. Rosalie's time with Gabriel and Trina would end. And her time with Tom...

She decided to check on
Trina and found her sitting on the side of the bed with a dress over her head, arms flailing to push through the sleeves.

“
Trina, you shouldn't be exerting yourself. Let me help.”

“
I can do it. Let me try,” she wheezed, pushing her right arm through the long sleeve. “You're leaving in the morning. I have to be able to do for myself.” The left arm followed, then she pulled the dress down and into place. “Why, Rosalie, you're crying.”

“
No, I just got a cinder in my eye. Really.”

“
I know real tears when I see them. What's wrong?”

“
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” That did it. Tears washed down her cheeks, as though spring rain had breached the banks of a creek.

“
Did Tom or Gabriel say something to hurt your feelings? I'll teach them a thing or two about courtesy!”

“
No! They didn't do anything, except be nicer to me than anyone ever has been in my life. When you said we were leaving in the morning, I realized I won't be seeing you again after tomorrow.”

Trina
's expression, and her arms held wide to embrace, made Rosalie cry even harder when Trina held her and patted her back in a motherly way. Trina possessed such sweetness, Rosalie could hardly bear it. And all this crying! She'd hardly cried in her whole life. Since coming to this ranch, she'd cried buckets of tears. She couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.

Yes, she could.
Being treated like a decent, respectable woman, having men speak nicely to her, having Trina as a real friend, getting to know Tom— If all that wasn't enough to cry about, then what was? She dried her tears on her skirt and got up from where she'd been sitting beside Trina on the bed.

“
I'm sorry. I've just come to love...being here. Meeting all of you. It's been a genuine pleasure to get to know you and your family.”

“
It isn't as though we'll never see each other again. Someday, Gabriel and Hannah and I will come to Denver. We'll visit you, I promise. And, I'll write every month.”

Rosalie nodded.
Of course, that's the way it would be. “I'll let you know where to send the letters, just as soon as I'm settled.”

“
Good. Now, even though I’ve brought it up a dozen times, you haven't told me why you’re going to Denver and what you'll be doing there, other than turning the head of every young man in town. Believe me, their heads are going to turn.”

Rosalie smiled at the idea, then sobered.
“I'm going to be house maid for a well-to-do family in Denver. My father arranged for me to go.”

“
Well, now, there's nothing wrong with honest work, is there? Most of my friends in Denver had house maids who were perfectly lovely women. In fact, I liked some of the maids more than I liked the friends they worked for.”

“
You're just saying that to make me feel better.”

“
No, it's the truth. Katie Bell's maid, Sylvia, had more sense than Katie Bell will ever have. She made the perfect wife for Geoffrey Monroe, because she won't ever vex him with too many questions about the wrong subjects, as I did.”

“
He was your beau?”

“
Before I met Gabriel. He even bought me an engagement ring. Gaudiest thing you ever did see, with red and green stones and gold filigree. He almost cried when I told him I couldn't accept his ring because I loved another man.”

“
Gabriel?”

“
Yes. We met on the train to Silver Falls.”

“
Tom told me a little about that, but not everything.”

“
I was kidnapped! I’ve never been so scared as when I had to cut a bullet out of that scoundrel.”

“
Tom didn't tell me about that.”

Trina
smiled. “I can see we have a lot to talk about before you leave in the morning. Now, help me fasten this dress so I can get up and walk. I've been practicing when no one was watching. You'll be surprised at how well I'm doing.”

“
Actually, everything you do surprises me. In a good way, of course.”

“
I wish I could keep you here another month. I'm going to have that talk with Tom, too, before you leave, and I can't wait to tell you about my adventures in the mountains and how it all turned out. That hooligan surprised us all!”

Rosalie wished, too, that she could stay a month.
But, she couldn’t. So, she’d enjoy every minute she had left, enough to last a month—or a lifetime.

<><><><>

The next morning, everyone came outside bright and early, except for Hannah, who had chosen to sleep instead of saying good-bye. Rosalie had touched her velvety cheek before leaving the house, though. Of all the babies she'd helped into the world, Hannah Hart would always be her favorite.

“
Rosalie, I'll write, as soon as you let me know where to send the letter.”

“
I'll write the minute I get to Denver, I promise.”

“
And Tom, you must promise you won't let Rosalie feel like a stranger in Denver. You're the only friend she’ll have there, other than Papa, Will and Bo. Don't just drop her at the door and disappear, you hear me?”

Tom grinned at his sister, knowing exactly what she meant.
“Don't worry, Trina. I have no intention of letting Rosalie get lonely in Denver. I'll be checking on her from time to time.”

“
See that you do. Rosalie, if he doesn't come around often enough to suit you, tell me in your letters so I can scold him soundly.”

Rosalie hugged
Trina for a long time before stepping back. “I can't tell you what it's meant to me to know you.”

“
No crying, now, I won't have it.” Tears shone in her own eyes as she said the words. “No crying other than my own.” Both women sniffed at tears and hugged again.

Tom and Gabriel shook hands.

“
It's been good seeing you, Gabriel. You take care of that little girl, now. Bring her to Fort Worth as soon as you can, and have her photograph made to send to Paw. I could describe her beauty all day without coming close.”

“
We'll do it. In fact, we'll have that new photographer in Fort Worth take pictures of all three of us. How would that be?”

“
We’ll send an extra one for Rosalie. I promise.” Trina hugged her brother.

Rosalie allowed Tom to help her into the buggy.
It was almost as though she and Tom had come to visit Gabriel and Trina as one married couple in the family visiting another. She had to get that out of her mind, though. If Tom kept his promise and “checked” on her in Denver, then maybe, someday…

“
Bye! Don't forget to write! I’ll pout for a month if you forget!”

“
I won't! Thanks again, for everything.”

“
Hannah will grow up knowing how special you were in her life. I'll tell her every day!”

“
Take care, Tom. Let me know about that bull calf.”

“
I will, Gabriel. Thanks.” Tom slapped the reins on the horse's rump and they headed for the ridge and Fort Worth, with Rosalie turned backward in the seat, waving to Trina and Gabriel until they were out of sight.